Friday, 23 January 2015

Mohammad for Mankind – what about Muslim war with the Jews

For many
Muslims the well-known facts about Mohammad pertain to his status as the
saviour of humanity; his impeccable behaviour quintessentially remains
unquestionable. Such praise absolves any need for character analysis and we are
expected to believe in the perfection of Mohammad in every aspect.

One of the qualities of Mohammad, which makes him an example to follow, is his mercy----displayed by acts of
forgiveness towards his enemies and the haters of Islam. But the simple truth
of the matter is that when Mohammad arrived in Madina in AD 622, a sizable
Jewish community thrived there and when he died in AD 632 very few Jews remained
due to expulsion, death and enslavement. Many Muslims will argue that Mohammad’s
state of perfection allowed him to punish the Jews who broke treaties and
schemed with the tribes opposed to him----even tried to kill him. But the
essence of forgiveness was not granted to the Jews and the hostility against
them is promoted and supported in every Muslim country to this day.

The glossed
over facts about the reasons for hatred towards the Jews are defended by many
Muslim theologians only because they vilified the Prophet in Madina and denied
the truth about his prophethood as mentioned in Quran. Some even argue that the
enslavement, punishment and retaliations against the Jews were simply acts of
following Arab custom, which allowed enslavement or death in dealing with the
enemies. However, granted that everyone is part and parcel of his or her own
culture, why a prophet imbued with divine inspiration from Allah did not rise
above these violent tribal customs.

Mohammad was
a man besieged by challenges of his time. He made decisions which went against
some people and pleased others. The reasons behind those decisions are open to
speculations, analysis and debate. Because the enmity against the Jews is very
ancient and since most Muslims believe in following Mohammad literally it is
crucial to know the facts behind the hostility.

Below is an
analysis of the events leading to the old hostility between the Muslims and the
Jews:

The
earliest Islam was an improvement on the prior faith, Judaism.

At the time
Mohammad entered Madina, three major Jewish clans lived there: Qaynuqa, Nadir
and Qurayz. Mohammad worked on an agreement with them that all the Jews were
not to support an enemy against him and ‘they were to be neither for him nor
against him,’ in other words be neutral. In April 624, Muhammad expelled the
clan Qaynuqa. One day a Muslim woman was conducting business in a Jewish market,
and some Jews fastened her skirt to a nail. When she stood up, she was exposed.
A Muslim happened to be present and witnessed the practical joke and the
ridicule, killed one of the pranksters, who avenged their friend’s death in
turn. The prank is found in Islamic sources which was the reason behind the
expulsion of Qaynuqa clan. However it is arguable that this prank has no more
than anecdotal value. But this incident is reason enough to inspire bin Laden
to bear a grudge against the Jews. Many historians believe that Jews had
assumed a contentious attitude towards Muhammad and that might have led to
their expulsion. Was Mohammad’s response to the conflict proportional? To many
it seems not because Qaynuqa never waged war on Mohammad. It comes not as a
surprise that millions of Muslims hate the Jews and if Mohammad is perceived as
their guide many believe that the enmity will not be wiped out.

When
Mohammad expelled the Nadir clan the revelation in the Quran which permits
Muhammad to cut down the date palms owned by the Jews is complicated to
understand, because law and custom forbade this practice in war or at any time,
but Allah gave the prophet special permission to break this rule. Mohammad
expelled the entire tribe because they supposedly tried to kill him. Many see
this response not propionate and think that it leads to the perceived
aggression of radical followers.

In March
627, after the Battle of Trench, Mohammad imposed the ultimate penalty on the
men of Jewish clan of Qurayza. The sentence was death by decapitation for
around 600 men and enslavement for the women and children. Muslim defence of
the carrying out of this sentence is that the Jews broke their agreement to
remain neutral in the battle. However it is argued that Mohammad could have
executed only a few leaders or the few guilty ones. He did not have to wipe the
entire Jewish tribe by execution and enslavement.

During the
caliphate of Umar the Jews were expelled from the Arabian
peninsula. Umar citing the prophet’s words spoken on his deathbed:
‘Two religions shall not remain together in the peninsula of the Arabs,’ and
considered it reason enough to justify his actions. This incident show that
irrational excess seeped into Islam in the very beginning.

The Hadith
passages saying that in the Last Day a tree or a stone will cry out that a Jew
is hiding behind it, so Muslims must come and kill him, leads to the assumption
for many Muslims that a Jew is behind every bad event, including 9/11. Plain
reading of the Quran inspires many fanatic preachers

It is
crucial for Muslims to ask, if Mohammad’s life and policies serve as role model
of peace and divine love, why the hostilities towards the Jews continue to
exist after fourteen hundred years? Can traditional and conservative Muslims
reform, when they prefer to follow literally Quran and Haadith?

No comments:

Post a Comment

About Me

@mssolidarity is Salima Yakoob. She has written on extremism, war on terror and
international politics. Many times she stands corrected but refuses to bow down
to religious apologists and moderates with no agendas. Her degree in English
proved beneficial in understanding the several isms.

If @mssolidarity is not writing she is doing
school runs, reading books of all sorts and listening to London Grammar on her
ipod.

Her posts
can be sometimes off-track and overly imaginative, but you should forgive her. She
is only a writer.